Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) Sees Large Volume Increase After Analyst Upgrade

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:SIRI) shares saw strong trading volume on Tuesday after Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on the stock from $3.40 to $28.00. Rosenblatt Securities currently has a neutral rating on the stock. 5,199,423 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 87% from the previous session’s volume of 2,774,832 shares.The stock last traded at $22.92 and had previously closed at $23.64.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on SIRI. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Sirius XM in a report on Monday, August 19th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded Sirius XM from an “underperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $42.50 to $32.50 in a report on Monday, June 24th. Guggenheim decreased their price target on Sirius XM from $33.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Citigroup lowered Sirius XM from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $28.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Sirius XM from $37.50 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Scott Andrew Greenstein sold 144,723 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.60, for a total transaction of $4,573,246.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 98,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,126,282.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sirius XM

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Sirius XM by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 573,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,120,000 after purchasing an additional 9,956 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp bought a new stake in Sirius XM during the 1st quarter valued at $2,036,000. Morningstar Investment Services LLC bought a new stake in Sirius XM during the 4th quarter valued at $85,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sirius XM by 1,320.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 39,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,000 after acquiring an additional 36,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Sirius XM by 25.2% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 42,385 shares of the company’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 8,541 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.69% of the company’s stock.

Sirius XM Stock Down 1.6 %

The company has a market capitalization of $89.51 billion, a PE ratio of 70.52, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $32.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.25.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80. Sirius XM had a negative return on equity of 52.15% and a net margin of 14.56%. The business had revenue of $2.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Sirius XM Holdings Inc. will post 3.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sirius XM Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.266 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This is a boost from Sirius XM’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.03. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.57%. Sirius XM’s dividend payout ratio is currently 321.21%.

About Sirius XM

Sirius XM Holdings Inc operates as an audio entertainment company in North America. It operates in two segments, Sirius XM, and Pandora and Off-platform. The company's Sirius XM segment provides music, sports, entertainment, comedy, talk, news, traffic and weather channels, and other content, as well as podcast and infotainment services on subscription fee basis; and live, curated, and exclusive and on demand programming services through satellite radio systems and streamed through applications for mobile and home devices, and other consumer electronic equipment.